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April 25, 2018

I’ve never liked the idea of Superman as Space Jesus or Space Moses. To me a big part of Superman has always been a story about an immigrant. (Kal-el becomes Clark Kent as if he went through Ellis Island.) I think you can understand a lot about those early Superman stories where he fights common criminals and the occasional mad scientist or robot when you parse it that way. Siegel and Shuster were two sons of Jewish immigrants. And the one thing that Jerry Siegel never talked about is the death of his father...when he was only 17, Mitchell Siegel was shot and killed by a robber at his second-hand clothing store.

April 24, 2018

In honor of my favorite character’s 80th birthday, I’ve thought about re-watching basically all of the Superman stuff I own and posting my thoughts....especially on some of the rare stuff like the 1975 ABC musical...

April 20, 2018

The Man of Steel turns 80 this year. And tomorrow Action Comics releases it’s 1000th issue. Superman is unapologetically my favorite comic book character. Yes, even here and now, in this age of the cynic, the contrarian, and the naysayer, he’s my favorite. Even in what feels like an endless sea of Batman fans, he is still my favorite.Why?Harlan Ellison said it best when he wrote:

"If one of the unarguable criteria for literary greatness is recognition, consider this: In all of the history of literature, there are only five fictional creations known to every man, woman, and child on the planet. The urchin in Irkutsk may never have heard of Hamlet, the peon in Pernambuco may not know who Raskolnikov is; the widow in Jakarta may stare blankly at the mention of Don Quixote or Micawber or Jay Gatsby. But every man, woman, and child on the planet knows Mickey Mouse, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Robin Hood... and Superman.

“He is more than the fanciful daydream of two Cleveland schoolboys. He is the 20th-century archetype of mankind at its finest. He is courage and humanity, steadfastness and decency, responsibility and ethic. He is our universal longing for perfection, for wisdom and power used in the service of the human race.

“Of all the literary creations of American fiction, Superman, after all these years, born of a ‘dispensable, disreputable’ genre, is the only one that seems certain to get Posterity's nod. And that is because, simply put, he is our highest aspirations in human form."